Knitting needles and brag books

Hello peeps, so here we go again with another roundup of some of the Christmas presents I made this year (looking back I didn't realise I had made SO many!).

This photo isn't brilliant, but its a knitting needle roll that I made my mum.  Its made out of quite heavy upholstery fabric so that it should withstand needles being poked in and hopefully stand up to quite a bit of abuse.

 This is a brag tag book for my Nan in NZ.  Its a chipboard tag mini photo album that my Nan can keep in her handbag and contains recent photos of me, my hubby, brother and his wife too.  The fern leaves are made out of air drying lightweight clay with a Martha Stewart (I think) mould and coloured with Dylusion sprays.

The letters are cut from a cereal box, coloured, glittered and then glossy accents to finish them and make them shine.

 

For family I also made a few more fabric covered notebooks

 

 and another quilted one (these really are a pain to make though as they take me SO long!)

I have more books to cover during 2015 but at the moment I cannot bring myself to make any more as, I think I need to concentrate on another craft for a while!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Mens gifts

 So, did you all have a wonderful New Year?  I always find its a bit of a damp squid where a taxi costs £40 and pubs charge you to walk through the door to spend money!!  Plus living in a City with 2 universities (yep, 2) it means we are over-run with students so town is  a bit of a no go area.  This meant we stayed in and watched a TV dramatisation about Tommy Cooper!

Now the tree is down, the Christmas cards cut up and I have already made some re-purposed cards ready for next Christmas (Sam Hettie you would be proud of me!).

So, this means I have had time to upload some more photos of the gifts I made over the past few months.

This time its mens gifts.  Me are SO difficult to buy for let alone make for.

So this year I made 2 of the mens gifts, both basically the same with a few tweaks.

I covered a note book in leather.  This one was for my Uncle in New Zealand.  I added a binding to keep the book closed and I created end papers for the book with a map of wales (where he used to live before emigrating).

 The next book I made was similar and for my brother.  I made a wrap out of Ecuadorian fabric that he brought back for his wedding (he and his wife lived there for a few years)

 I used maps of London (where they currently live) for the end papers.

So there you have it, a couple of presents for men-now if anyone has any other suggestions I have my brothers birthday on Valentines day!!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

First part of my Christmas make round up

Hello peeps, as many of you will know I have had to be a bit cagey over the past couple of months about what I show on my desk in case I uncovered something I was making for Christmas!

Finally I can share with you some of those makes.  First for each brother (hubby has 2 and I have 1) I made a homemade hamper.  They each contained a bottle of elderflower cordial, some spicy rhubarb chutney, spiced sugar (which contains flavours such as clove, orange, cinnamon and bay leaf, yep, bay leaf...it really does work) and some sloe gin.  All handmade and I finished off the hampers with some candy canes and some christmas tree decorations with their names on (not handmade but they did look so cute)!

 Back in the summer I did a glass fusing course and made necklaces, keyrings and coasters.  Now, I did make a few but I kept a lot of them myself so I need to do another course (luckily my brother in law and his lovely wife bought me a glass blowing course voucher so that's another craft to try!).

 I also made several book covers.  I made a few quilted ones (but these are a PAIN and took me hours to make just one!)

 So I decided to try using solid fabric instead and this worked just as well but took a lot less and didn't cause my RA to flare after.

Then there is the proverbial problem of what to make for men!  Well, my brother currently works for a Japanese company and I know that tradition states that they respect their business cards so I made him a leather business card holder with his initials stamped on the front.

So, that's a few of my latest makes.  I will finish uploading the rest of my photos soon and share them.

Happy crafting

Kyla